


Shot in the Dark

by LyingHonesty



Series: Soundwave Tales [1]
Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Depression, Grief, Minor Character Death, Post Series, Recovery, shadowzone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-25
Updated: 2014-11-25
Packaged: 2018-02-26 23:08:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2669822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyingHonesty/pseuds/LyingHonesty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soundwave has been forgotten in the Shadowzone.</p><p>Hasn't he?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shot in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> There have been a lot of edits made to this piece, and I'm hoping to expand it into a series, possibly a full story.

He hated it here, in this place. It was dark, colorless, soundless. That was the worst of it really: the silence. He was a Host frame, a Chronicler as they were once called, built to be surrounded constantly by the sound and the presence of symbiotes and information. He was going to go insane in this silence, and there was no one to save him, no one to keep him from losing himself.

Emotions were bad, were dangerous, but-b-b-but -

Static filled his vision. He had been glitching for a while now and it was getting worse every orn - he thought it was orns. His chronometer didn't work here in this dark place. Soon, he wondered if he'd even be able to string a thought together. Hewished that he still had a voice in these times, anything at all to fill the silence.He wrapped long arms around himself, a full frame shudder rattling his plating. He was alone, so very alone. He could pretend sometimes that it wasn't true. After all, here he was on the Nemesis and he could see everyone still. Hear all as he always had, and in fact he was sure now that no one knew he was around, he was witness to even more than he ever had been in the daylight dimension. Although the dimensional veil muffled things, and that made things a little difficult.  Hehad to stick very close to someone to hear their words, or it was only an indecipherable buzz. A nightmare for a mech  who once relied on his ability to see and hear everything around him.

No one was looking for him. The drones seemed happy that he was lost to the void and could no longer terrorize them (he never thought he'd been all that terrible. He just had a low tolerance for foolishness), and the officers... well, he'd never made friends with them. He hadn't had the time or interest, and they resented him for being Megatron's prized and most loyal servant. They hadn't spared him a thought since his disappearance, he was sure. He was being left here, and though he knew that his Lord had more to concern himself with than Soundwave , he—  h-h-h-he—

Frag.  He hated when his thoughts were scrambled like this. It terrified him. He shook his helm, as though that would rid him of the glitch he’d developed, but it never did before, and it didn't now.  

He was stubborn, though, determined. He wouldn’t let this be the end of him, he couldn’t. He would find his way out of this Primus-forsaken place,even if he was all alone . Lazerbeak  was - she was gone -g-g-go-gone.

He slammed a servo on a nearby console. At least he could touch those, though he didn’t know how, and no one on the other side seemed to notice it was happening. He always found the damaged consoles in pristine condition again later. The ship itself knew he was there, but the ship was bitter. It wouldn’t speak to him, not after the time it had developed True Sentience and he’d tried to hack it. It wasn't as sentient now, not anymore, but even semi-sentient beings could hold grudges it seemed.

_ Stop hitting me you brute. _

Soundwave looked up, surprised. It was speaking to him ?

_ Lord Megatron has been defeated. _

No. No. That was impossible. Pain clutched at his spark, crushing it, and he half expected warnings to pop up on his CPU in response with damage reports. There were none, but that didn't make him feel any better.How was it possible? Lord Megatron was supposed to win the war, defeat had never been an option. Lord Megatron was supposed to crush the Autobots, and rescue Soundwave, force them to get him out. He couldn’t have been defeated. Not h-h-him.

He focused more fully on the console. It was a ghost, really, they both knew it. The Nemesis was projecting information into Soundwave through a link they’d long had, a link almost as strong as he'd once had with the symbiotes. All gone now. All gone.

_ Focus, Soundwave. This is the footage that was brought to me. _

The scout. Soundwave felt a sense of betrayal, which was odd. He barely knew the youngling, and they had no connection. There was no reason for him to feel betrayed by Bumblebee killing  Megatron,but he didfeel it as he watched the youngling pierce Megatron’s spark. How they had gotten that, the the- th -the- th.

Soundwave started typing.  He couldn’t watch this, couldn’t watch his leader fall.  If he watched, that made it true. If he watched it meant  that  he was lost , trapped here forever.

—

Predacons. Predacons.  Unicron .  Dark energon.

Soundwave lifted his helm, cracked visor showing a question mark, nothing more. No other movement or sign of life came from the mech. If the Nemesis hadn't known better, it would have thought Soundwave  was permanently deactivated. It was glad that he wasn't.

_ Will you wake up now? _

He wasn’t sleeping. He was… his energy… so low… His helm started to fall again, and the voice, the presence, pushed at him harder.  _They’re fighting without you , you fool! I am under attack! What happens to you if I fall too, Soundwave? Who will guide and protect you when I am gone? Or do you no longer wish to live? _

He glared upward, the only thing he could do with some thing that had no face, or even anything in place of a face. The ship made a noise of derision. _Help me help them win, and I’ll make sure they get you out. _

That had his attention. He could get out, be free, hear sound again. When was the last time he'd heard a mech speak, felt their EM field? He’d be a war criminal of course, a prisoner, but he would be — He wouldn’t be alone  anymore. Maybe the medics could even help him repair—

That wasn’t possible though.  If it was the war would have been much different.  No deaths.  No p-pa-p-p-p-pain.

The glitch was still there then. Soundwave  couldn’t move, but his cables turned loose and he connected to the illusion, to the ship. This was probably just another defrag flux, after all. No harm in cooperation. Data streamed between them, and power flowed into the Nemesis, the only ally he had left. If this was a flux, he'd online soon. If it wasn't, he'd be free soon.

—-

"What do you mean you let him out?" Miko demanded, outraged. "Do you know how hard it was to get him in there?"

Jack put a hand on her shoulder, trying to soothe her, but before he could say anything, Rafael stepped forward. ”Is he okay?” he asked softly, surprising his two human friends.  ”I... kinda expected him to find a way out on his own way sooner than this.”  Miko looked even more angry at that for a moment, but a squeeze on her shoulder from Jack kept her from saying anything.

Bumblebee smiled at his friend and nodded. ”He’s alright. Very low on energy, and Ratchet’s defragging a viral glitch right now, but he’ll be okay after some rest and energon. Well, mostly okay anyway." None of them knew what happened when a host mech's bonds with his symbiotes were broken, and Soundwave had lost _all_ of his over the course of the war. He might call it a needed sacrifice to the Decepticon cause if asked, but Bumblebee was sure that he must be at least a little angry about losing them. Ratchet was concerned enough that he and Optimus had been discussing how to contact Blaster, if their own host was still online. There was far too little known about host mechs, and even with Blaster's help, he had said once that Soundwave wasn't quite right, that he was somehow different from other hosts. " We’re still deciding what to do with him. Emotionally—”

"Can I see him? I mean, is he awake?" 

Blue optics cycled in surprise, then hesitation. ”I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Raf.”

"It’s a very BAD idea!" Miko exclaimed, before Jack shushed her. Rafael looked down, and no one missed the moment of his shoulders shaking, before he locked them in place.

"I think he can help rebuild Cybertron." Everyone stared at him, and he shuffled. "We let Knockout join, didn’t we? He was one of Megatron's officers too, so why not Soundwave? He remembers what started the war, he remembers why he started fighting!" He looked up again. "Ratchet explained it to us once. When he was talking about Orion Pax. The Decepticon cause wasn’t that bad, was it, what they were fighting for? The... the fight against a corrupt government, desire for freedom and equal rights?Humans did that too, their cause wasn't bad!  Just how they went about it. I can convince him to help, Bee, I know I can.”

Bumblebee sighed and nodded, pinging Ratchet. Rafael smiled, waiting.

"Raf," Jack said, tugging his friend aside. "Are you sure about this? I mean, it’s a long shot." 

Rafael nodded. He was sure. ”It's not really a long shot. He’s lonely, Jack. Megatron just left him there in the ShadowZone, the Decepticons are gone. They said that Lazerbeak was gray when they found her - they’re waiting for his say so to have a service for her. He needs someone to reach out to him, he needs to be given something new to live for. If we give him a purpose like Megatron did—  Well, maybe Megatron will even come back and help too.” He shrugged, ignoring Jack's skeptical look. ”It’s worth a shot, even if I am shooting a little blind. Don't you think?”

Jack sighed and nodded, squeezing Rafael's shoulder. He turned to Miko and nudged her along, ignoring her protests and insisting that it was better they trusted Rafael on his own for this.

Rafael looked up at Bumblebee.  ”Can we bring in that big chess set? I’m gonna teach him to play. He’ll like it, don't you think? ”

Bumblebee smiled and nodded, impressed with his human companion. He knew that if anyone could understand Soundwave, could bring him around, it would be Raf. Prime might favor Jack as a human Prime, but Bumblebee knew, he could see, that there was something very special about Raf. He dug out the game and motioned for Rafael to follow him to the med bay. Maybe, just maybe, things really would be okay.


End file.
